


back to the basics (and the simple life)

by spiderks



Category: The Umbrella Academy (Comics), The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Asexual Number Five | The Boy, Bisexual Male Character, F/F, F/M, Inspired by Music, Luther Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Luther Hargreeves friendly, Luther is Five's guardian, M/M, No Incest, Number Five | The Boy Acts Like A Teenager, Number Five | The Boy Goes to School, Number Five | The Boy Needs A Hug, Number Five | The Boy-centric, Protective Luther Hargreeves, Soft Luther Hargreeves, Soft Number Five | The Boy, and Jaden, and harry styles, and lorde, and willow, five's name is gabriel, he deaged himself to a 15 year old, he's portrayed by louis partridge, i wrote this while listening to wallows, my oc's name is hugo, no luther bashing allowed, not 13, okay im done, please make more fanfics under that tag im starved, the title is from ease by troye sivan, we love luther, when five went to 2019 the first time
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:15:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26975740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spiderks/pseuds/spiderks
Summary: Five remembers him. Except his face isn't caved in from a piece of debris. Oh, and he isn't dead.orFive has to attend a school he raided during the apocalypse.
Relationships: Claire & Harlan Cooper, Number Five | The Boy & Luther Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & The Hargreeves (Umbrella Academy), Number Five | The Boy (Umbrella Academy) & Everyone, Number Five | The Boy (Umbrella Academy)/Original Male Character(s), Number Five | The Boy/Original Male Character(s), Raymond Chestnut/Allison Hargreeves, Sissy Cooper/Vanya Hargreeves
Comments: 10
Kudos: 106





	back to the basics (and the simple life)

**_New York City, The Umbrella Manor, September 2, 2019_ **

“It’s Labor Day, for Christ’s sake! Why should I be subjected to this rigorous task?” Klaus exclaims, throwing his hands in the air. Allison raised her eyebrows and took a small sip of her drink. She made sure not to drink too much, keeping in mind that there were children present. Allison glanced to her right, watched as Diego poked and prodded at Luther with drunken teases, and sighed. It wasn’t even nighttime yet.

“How is telling Five four words a rigorous task?” Klaus’ eyes bulged out of his head and gasped. Tequila spilled from his glass onto the hardwood floor and her brother stumbled forward, his bare feet stepping into the puddle. She scowled as Klaus gripped her shoulder with his free hand and gave her a rough shake.

“This is little old Five we’re talking about, no pun intended! These four words will be the motive of my murder!”

Allison relented, Klaus was right. Five wasn’t going to take this easy, but they had procrastinated for too long. Very long. This needed to happen now and Allison would be lying if she said she wasn’t doing this to save her own ass. No one else would agree, not even Ben and he’s a  _ ghost _ .

“Klaus, just do this for me. Please?”

The question was innocent. She even added a please. There is absolutely no way that question has an undertone of evil. Allison wouldn’t rumor him, he’s her sister. That’s sibling code 101. Klaus threw his head back and groaned. She was definitely going to rumor him if he didn’t do it.

“Fine, I yield. But, just so you know, you are now my fourth favorite sibling.”

“Oh my gosh, Klaus, I care about that so much.” Allison grinned sarcastically, turned on her heel, and walked away, leaving Klaus all alone. Well, not completely alone.

“Well, this is going to be interesting.” Ben smirked from his spot on the counter. Klaus looked at his brother, in all of his dead glory, and swatted at his dangling legs. He glanced at his younger and older brother who was sitting in the corner of the room where he had a perfect view of every exit in the wide living room, though Five wasn’t paying much attention to any possible intruders or attacks. Instead, he watched his niece and soon to be nephew play in the courtyard. Diego and Luther stumbled past his vision, arguing again it seemed. His sister, the one he actually liked, sat outside with her fiancée on lawn chairs, talking and giggling. And finally, on the couch was The Rumor herself with her amazing husband. Klaus couldn’t help but let his mind drift off to Dave who was right at his fingertips, before he slipped away. Klaus knew it would never work, knew he couldn’t have him, but it was so  _ unfair _ . Vanya has Sissy. Allison has Raymond. And in some way, Diego still has his batshit crazy ex-girlfriend, Lila. Why couldn’t he have Dave? Klaus searched through thousands of records with the help of Diego, but found not one report on David Katz. That was it. No closure, no reassurance. He wished he hadn’t ever found Dave in Dallas. He wished Dave had stayed dead in his mind so he could keep blaming the mean little girl even though he knew it wasn’t her fault. Klaus shook his head, he couldn’t act like this. It wasn’t like him to be all mopey and sad like Luther. He was the eccentric, happy, and talkative brother. Klaus just needed a distraction.  _ Oh, yes! The amazing news for Five. _ Klaus just needed to get to Five.

Klaus readjusted his grip on his glass and dragged his feet towards his dear assassin brother. “This is cruel. It is Labor Day! Why can’t I just relax?” 

“Relax? Klaus, you’ve never even had a real job.” Ben hopped off of the counter and followed Klaus. Watching this would be the highlight of his week.

“Neither have you.” Klaus grumbled. Ben, the raging ball of sarcasm, smiled widely.

“Yeah because it’s definitely not like I’ve been dead for the past 20 years or so.”

_ The death card. He’s always pulling the death card. _

It was only then did he realize he was standing in front of Five, blocking the window to the courtyard. Five looked to be only seconds away from throttling him. Klaus should probably say something.

“Hey, Five. What are you up to, you little rascal?” Five scowled and clenched his fist.  _ Okay, bad wording. _

“I was minding my own business before you came. The hell do you want Klaus?” Five growled, the glass in his hand began to shake from his anger. Klaus reached forward and snatched the glass.

“Is this liquor? You know I prefer tequila. Are you even supposed to be drinking this?  _ You have to go to school tomorrow. _ Isn’t this bad for your pubescent body?”

Five froze and furrowed his eyebrows.  _ Of course the little bastard heard, why did I think that would work? _

_ “I have to go where?” _

-

Klaus sat at the kitchen table with a thawed out bag of peas held to his eye. Ben could be heard giggling behind him and in front of him, his siblings were arguing as usual.

“I am not going to a building full of half witted, brainless idiots every single day!”

“Technically, it’s not everyday. You have weekends off.” Diego stated plainly with a mouth full of pudding. Five growled and smacked his brother’s pudding cup onto the floor. And suddenly, the argument went from being about school to pudding. Klaus sighed and blinked as the condensation from the frozen peas dribbled into his eye.

“Enough! Five you have to go to school. You can’t just hide out here for the rest of your life. We already reported that you were found to the police and we’d get arrested if we didn’t send you to school.” Allison tried to reason with Five. It was nighttime, she was tired, and just wanted to sleep. They had been arguing for hours, Raymond and Sissy had already gone to bed as well as the kids and she and Vanya wanted nothing more than to join them.

“Who the fuck told you to do that? I am an adult, not a child. I can take care of myself.” Five growled.

“Obviously, you can’t if you’re getting drunk at 3pm every Monday through Friday.” Luther sipped his drink. Though Luther seemed unbothered, it actually hurt him to point that out. It may seem as if Luther didn’t care about his family, but he truly did. He walks around every day with guilt weighing down on him. All he seemed to do was hurt his siblings whether it was insulting them unknowingly or just being a plain idiot. He patched things up with all of siblings (and to his surprise, Vanya), but he still didn’t know where he stood with Five. He had hurt Five at the burlesque bar in 1963, Luther knows because he could see it in his eyes. It was always easy for him to read Five’s emotions. He thinks it’s because they’re twins, it certainly made things clearer when the two found out back when they were both kids. They were attached at the hip when they were babies and always knew exactly how each other felt when they were older. They were close, not in the way him and Allison were, but in their own way. Luther just wanted Five to get better.

Vanya stepped forward before Five could reply, “Five, this would be much easier if you would just cooperate, please? We don’t expect you to make friends or anything. You can get your diploma and then go to college, if you want, get a job, something! But, you have to go to school.”

Five didn’t say anything. He knew Vanya was right. If he wanted to do anything with his pathetic life, he’d have to graduate. But, Five doesn’t  _ want _ to go. He blames it on his pubescent body, says the hormones fuck with his mind and emotions and is making him go through a weird combination of a teenage and adult rebellion. But, he’s only lying to himself. He knows it’s because of the Commission. It’s stupid, honestly, the Commission is good now. It’s being temporarily run by Herb and the Resistance, and no one is being killed anymore. But, it’s not like Five can just forget about his time there. He can’t just forget about how Dot knew he was in the Apocalypse, 13 and mourning the loss of his family, and watched as he grew, as he tried to survive in what was left of the world. Five knows Dot couldn’t do anything, she was just following orders. But, he  _ feels _ like she could’ve done more. The Resistance could’ve done more. Five has trust issues, he’ll never be able to let that go, to move on. Fighting and surviving is all he knows. How can he relax? How can he go to school with a bunch of idiot children, when he should be watching over the Commission? But, again, for the hundredth time, he’d have to disregard his feelings and follow his logical side.

“Fine. What’s the plan?” He sighed and lazily slid into the seat beside Klaus’.

“Plan? What do you mean?” Diego furrowed his brows, but kept his eyes on the ground where he was vigorously scrubbing the pudding on the tiled floor. Five wanted to tell him, “Dab, not scrub,” but he thinks that applies to blood only.

“Yeah, there is no plan, Five. All you have to do is go to school. It’s not a mission.” Allison pitched in.

“So, what, I don’t have a cover name or story?”

His siblings glanced at each other nervously. He caught Diego mouthing, “Should we have given him a cover story,” to Luther and physically felt himself lose brain cells. Then, he thought back to what Allison said earlier.

“You idiots! You reported that I was found? Why didn’t you just come up with a fake name or something?” He yelled in frustration. He’s surprised there isn’t any media coverage about this. ‘Missing Umbrella Academy Member, The Boy, found after 17 years,’ the headlines will be everywhere!

“Calm down, little brother. The police promised confidentiality. Your new name is Gabriel Five Hargreeves. Name courtesy of our lovely Numero Uno, of course.” Klaus drawled from beside him as he placed his melted peas on the table in front of them.

After protesting loudly at receiving a name and unintentionally making his father proud as he hated the idea of his soldiers being called anything other than the numbers they were assigned, Grace visited him after everyone was fast asleep with wires connecting them to their brain activity machines. She whispered to him, “Goodnight, Gabriel,” before securing the wires to his head. He thought maybe the wave patterns on his machine were more active than usual that night as he dreamt about the happy life of a boy named Gabriel who lived in France with his twin brother.

He had only told one person about the name Grace given him, and that was Luther. Five remembered that night. Luther had uncharacteristically broken the rules, deciding to hide out in the attic when he should’ve been asleep in his bed. Five had blinked into the room, as he usually went there when he ran out of space on his walls for his equations. His brother was quiet, and had been all day because Allison was ignoring him. Five, who usually loved silence, though he would hate it in the future, decided to fill the quietness with random tidbits, which included his dream about a boy named Gabriel. Luther hadn’t told anyone, they didn’t speak at all the next day. But, he knew Luther was glad Five told him. It only made Luther feel closer to him.

“We all thought Aidan would’ve been a better name, but Luther threw a hissy fit when we suggested it.”

Five was glad Luther threw a ‘hissy fit.’ Aidan is a terrible name and didn’t fit him at all. Five thought maybe he should be mad that they didn’t let him pick his own name even though he would’ve said Gabriel. But, he wasn’t. He was actually glad that they had taken care of it. It felt weird, sure, he was used to taking care of things himself. It made him feel a bit lost, to be honest, but it was nice he didn’t have to waste time on it. Paperwork was boring, even for an old man. He couldn’t imagine sitting at a desk all day, like Dot or Herb. He got a taste of that in the old timeline and he never wanted to do it again. Maybe that’s why the idea of going to school was hard for him. He moves around constantly, he can’t sit still. It’s why taking the role of an assassin and killing was easier for him. Well, that and the fact that he was mixed with the DNA of almost every notorious and infamous serial killer known to man.

“I don’t care about the name. What if someone recognizes my last name and my cover is blown?”

“Well, technically, you don’t have a cover. Just a partial new name.” Diego supplied, “God, Five, haven’t you been listening?”

Five bristled.

Diego gulped.

“Since Klaus is a newly recovered ex-drug addict,” Vanya perks up, “Which we are all very proud of.”

Klaus smiles and bats his eyelashes at his sister as she continues talking.

“Diego is, for some reason, hated and on strike two with the police, even though I don’t know what that means, Ben is, um, respectively deceased, Allison is so well known, and I am getting married to a woman from the 60s, not to mention that Allison is already married to someone from the past, Luther was the only person left to be your legal guardian. So, if the topic ever comes up, you are the adopted son of Luther Hargreeves.” Luther held his breath as Vanya finished. Anyone else would have been a better choice. Vanya had the most normal life out of all of them, and hell, Klaus looked more like Five than his own twin. The raging fit Luther expected never came. Instead, Five’s face remained impassive.

“Is that all or can I go wallow in self pity?” Five snatches up a bottle of scotch which Allison politely takes as Five stomps angrily past her looking every bit of petulant a 13 year old could.

“I think that went well.” Ben says.

Klaus rolls his eyes and decides Labor Day is the worst holiday to ever exist.


End file.
